[HANASHIR:3582] Re: HANASHIR digest 610

[Benjo <bfleisch...>]

hello-
i thought i wouldn't be posting again for a while, but i again felt the 
desire to clarify some points.  here goes:


From: BEBWH (at) aol(dot)com    
<< I'm pretty hungry right now. Know why? Check the Hebrew calender.
Would I rather be doing other things today? Swimming, playing my guitar,
watching a movie? You bettcha. But the Torah says we can't.>>

as a point of clarification, the Torah says nothing on the matter of the 
the fast days.  It was an ordained fast day.  Zechariyah says that 
someday they will be feast days.  The sources bring down that will be in 
the the time of redemption. R' David Golinkin, a Masorti Rabbi in Israel, 
wrote a tshuvah showing up till the Geonim and most Rishonim, the fasts 
were considered reshut (optional) since there was no peace and no war.  
Only later did a posek (law-code) say 'they are optional, but everyone 
wants to.  we are in the habit of being stringent.'  His tshuvah, taking 
our possession of the state of Israel into account, I believe permits 
breaking the fast at minchah.  It may be found in the first edition of 
the Va'ad halacha of Masorti.
        It is made mention in the Tana"ch (scriptures) and is very 
important, but I wouldn't say it's from the Torah.

<<Not true.. .Halacha does not change. Every circumstance is evaluated 
and an answer is given ACCORDING TO HALACHA>>

that is semantics.  the halakha does change. it's name means 'the way we 
go', the system is more constant than 'the way we go'.  a brief look at 
Jewish history will prove my point that the halakha has always been 
diverse and changing.
        i further don't believe you needed to have been so polemical in 
your email.

From: BEBWH (at) aol(dot)com
<< For example I'll bet we all know you don't find insturments in 
Orthodox synagogues on Shabbat yet there were insturments in the Holy 
Temple on Shabbat. Any of us guitar players can tell you there's no issue 
of work for me when I play so why does the tradition say we can't play on 
Shabbat now?>>

please, the prohibition of instruments on the sabbath is a gezera, a 
decree.  It is not a m'lacha.  please see Gruenfeld's "The Sabbath" for a 
brief overview of what m'lahca is.  it is not 'work.' it is more complex 
than that.  Shabbat is a day when we rely on things that existed before 
its onset, a day when we remove all divisions between ourselves and God 
and sorta go back to nature. We become self-reliant and must focus on 
ourselves and our family.  That is why some early responsa permitted 
Telephone use on the Sabbath for non-business purposes.  It brings people 
together.  accepting the ban on instruments on shabbat takes a leap of 
faith, to accept the rabbi's teachings.  I can only say 'go and learn' 
for you to understand what it means.

well, that is that. i hope this list will soon calm down again and get 
back to 'why do the words for v'haer eineinu say "v'lo nevosh, v'lo 
nikalem, v'lo niqashe, l'olam va'ed.'  I never heard the middle two 
phrases before.  also, in 'wherever you go' my roommate says the second 
verse 'you're always at home, because God made you a Jew.' and she 
insists this is the correct version.

any comments?
shabbat shalom.
-Benjamin

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